Review/Film; How Elitist Roaches See the World

By VINCENT CANBY

Published: March 29, 1991

With that commonplace line Hiroaki Yoshida begins a rather uncommon Japanese film, "Twilight of the Cockroaches," a nervy satire that looks at the world from the point of view of cockroaches.

Naomi is a sweet virginal thing betrothed to Ichiro, a nice young cockroach who is just a little bit boring compared to Hans, a heroic warrior cockroach from another tribe.

In the film, which opens today at the Film Forum, cartoon cockroaches are seen against real backgrounds, often in the company of live actors.

The mixture of live action and animation is technically excellent, though the animated characters are not visually interesting.

Naomi and her cockroach friends look like dim fireflies in an old Silly Symphony, but that turns out to be one of the movie's many jokes within the joke: cockroaches are dopey idealizations and humans are gigantic, untrustworthy beasts.

When the film starts, Naomi, Ichiro and their friends are on the fast track, living lives of unparalleled comfort and ease in the house of a bachelor named Saito (Kaoru Kobayashi). Saito likes to eat well and never cleans up. He's a slob after any cockroach's heart.

With his apparent approval, this particular cockroach tribe has never had it so good. They have the freedom of the kitchen and the bathroom, the two most interesting rooms in the house. They don't have to go scurrying around in the dark.

They indulge themselves in broad daylight, much to the horror of one of their elders, who warns against "cavorting in the open like this."

Naomi and Ichiro are aware that other cockroach tribes are fighting for their lives. Hans tells horrifying tales of mass death and destruction abroad (in the house on the other side of the field), but no one pays attention until Saito brings home a girlfriend who is a nut about cleanliness.

Suddenly Naomi, Ichiro and their friends are confronting something more than "crushings, charrings and senseless mutilations." The girlfriend uses a bug bomb. They are confronting genocide.

The publicity material for "Twilight of the Cockroaches" describes the film as an allegory about the fate in store for affluent Japan if it doesn't meet its international responsibilities. The film may read that way in Japan. In this country, it looks somewhat darker and more muddled.

The cockroaches, who call themselves God's chosen people, speak of racial purity. Someone says, "God gave man deadly poisons so only the strongest will survive." Though I assume the film is sending up this master-race idea, it's sometimes difficult to tell, at least in the English subtitles that are provided.

The ground-level, cockroach point-of-view photography is cleverly done, as are the sound effects. The noise of an ordinary footfall is olympian thunder to a cockroach, while the closing of a zipper cracks the ear drums.

The film's most comically subversive effect is the way it splits the loyalties of the ordinary city dweller who, outside the theater, spends far too much time attempting to outwit the dread, never-ending horde. Twilight of the Cockroaches Directed and written by Hiroaki Yoshida; in Japanese with English subtitles; music by Morgan Fisher; produced by Mr. Yoshida and Hidenori Taga; a Gaga Communications Presentation; a Tyo Production; a Streamline Pictures release. At Film Forum 2, 209 West Houston Street, in Manhattan. Running time: 105 minutes. This film has no rating. Saito . . . Kaoru Kobayashi Neighbor . . . Setsuko Karasumaru

Photo: A scene from "Twilight of the Cockroaches," a Japanese comedy by Hiroaki Yoshida that is being shown at the Film Forum. (Streamline Pictures)